scrag (plural scrags)

1. (archaic) A thin or scrawny person or animal. [from the 16th c.]
   • 1946, Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan

     In any event he might have wakened the long scrag by so doing.

2. (archaic) The lean end of a neck of mutton; the scrag end.
3. (archaic) The neck, especially of a sheep.
4. (Scotland) A scrog.
5. (UK, slang, derogatory) A chav or ned; a stereotypically loud and aggressive person of lower social class.
6. (Australia, slang, derogatory) A rough or unkempt woman.
7. A ragged, stunted tree or branch.

scrag (scrags, present participle scragging; past and past participle scragged)

1. (obsolete, colloquial) To hang#Verb|hang on a gallows, or to choke#Verb|choke, garotte, or strangle.
   • Pall Mall Magazine

     An enthusiastic mob will scrag me to a certainty the day war breaks out.

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 37:

     Adrian thought it worth while to try out his new slang... ‘That's beastly talk, Thompson. Jolly well take it back or expect a good scragging.’

2. To harass;, to manhandle.
   • 1958, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 15, in Cocktail Time:

     '...I urged him ... to ... try the Ickenham System ... a little thing I knocked together in my bachelor days ... it has a good many points in common with all-in wrestling and osteopathy. I generally recommend it to diffident wooers and it always works like magic...'

     Johnny stared.

     'You mean you told McMurdo to … scrag her?'

3. To destroy or kill#Verb|kill.
   • 1897 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Slaves of the Lamp. Part II.”, in Stalky & Co., London: Macmillan & Co., published 1899, [} page 258]:

     oclc = 1127934491privatim—scragged him>passage = [...] I went out lookin' for a line of retreat for my men. A man found me. I abolished him—privatim—scragged him.footer =brackets =

     }}

• Russian: задыха́ться